During the COVID quarantine of 2020, you may be among the masses who took a deep dive into the home improvement projects that have stock-piled during our regularly scheduled lives. From painting rooms to planting seeds, we kept our local home improvement stores busy!

Maintaining operations as an essential business throughout, we also heard the stories from our dealers about homeowners revamping their garages. While we fully support the desire to DIY, we urge caution when it comes to the garage door. If you are eager for the reorganization of your garage, please visit our Pinterest page for lots of ideas (it's possible I may be an organization fanatic), but if you need your garage door serviced or replaced, we have some tips for you!

1. Safety First

In our organization, safety is our guiding light. All of our decisions must first pass through the net of safety. If it isn't safe...it doesn't happen. With this mindset, we encourage you to hire a professional for your garage door needs. While regular maintenance can be handled at home, such as the checking of the photo-eyes or confirming the track is lubed, when it comes to springs, track, and the sections, finding a pro is key.

While many feel the installation of a garage door simply couldn't be rocket science, we have to disagree. We work with many experienced professionals who will share stories told to them of hands being crushed between sections, fingers being lost when a spring is wound too tight, and whole sections being damaged beyond repair when they fall out of the opening. All of these occurrences are avoidable when done by a professional.

2. Not all openings are created equal

There is a good chance, if you have a newer home, that the opening of your garage door will either be 8' x 7' or 9' x 8' if you have a single door or 16' x 8' for a double door. For the most part this is easy when the opening is standard. What gets complicated if there are any imperfections in the level of the floor, the room above the door, and the area designated for the track. Any limitations here may require special set-ups or perhaps a special door.

To be sure your door moves safely, quietly, and consistently, the right tracks, springs, door sections, and operator will be necessary. A professional will be able to assess and prescribe the correct combination for your project. If there are questions, our engineers are standing by to help resolve issues and find solutions!

3. Experience brings efficiency

In a perfect world, life runs smoothly - like clockwork. But we know the world is not a perfect one. During most garage door installations, some aspects of the install may need adjusting. From snipping bottom rubber to accommodate hardware, clipping extra length of bar off the operator in a low ceiling garage to avoid hitting the car, or replacing angle iron to secure the install. Additionally, most installations require working with electricity which should always demand a professional.

Many of these on-site obstacles require the tools and materials to navigate without delaying the install. When the installer is prepared, you can be sure the efficiency (and cost) of the job remains on point.

4. Know when to repair and when to replace

We know it's not always clear when to replace or when to repair. Making this decision on your own may prove fatal. If you have concerns about the state of your door, please call a professional if any of these 'symptoms' occur:

• It reverses direction
• It's slow to open
• It closes or opens by itself
• You can see track misalignment
• It makes strange noises
• It has temperature inconsistencies
• It's warped or weather damaged in some way

5. Warranties are your friend

Most garage doors and installations come with a warranty; however, most will be voided if repairs are attempted by the homeworner. In most cases, the installer will offer a service agreement during the warranty period, and the manufacturer will offer a warranty as well. Maintaining this coverage can truly help you maintain the life and safety of your garage door investment.

Find the Right Pro

When you seek out the professional to service or sell you your garage door, we encourage you to ask a lot of questions to vet out the right partner for your project.

      What company reviews are available?

What service packages are included with the installation?

What warranty comes with the installation and the parts?

Does the installer offer a satisfaction guarantee?

What can be done in advance of the installation to prepare?

How long has the company been in business?

How much experience does the installer have?

Are they licensed and insured?

When you attempt the repair or replacement of your garage door, you may end up lucky and only endure some frustrations and added finances, but we caution you as the risks may prove far more damaging. At Fimbel ADS, we have nearly a century of experience to help us guide you through the journey. Our doors are constructed to last, and we strive for your safety and satisfaction.

To find a dealer, please head to our website!

To learn more about our products please visit our Instagram page @FimbelADS. Follow along for more tips and beauty shots! 

Love in Every Door!

We Love our Planet!

You Will Love Your Door!

Company of Hillside, he built a business and a legacy on craftsmanship and quality. 

our origins, check out this article.

 In 2004, Edward Fimbel III foresaw the increase in popularity of carriage doors and founded Fimbel

Today, Erin Fimbel and Michaela Birdyshaw, Ed Fimbel III's daughters have taken the company to the
next level despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. With focus on continuous improvement and
growth, they are carrying on the family traditions and bringing today's business mind to the table.

Erin, as President of Fimbel ADS, has grown through the ranks to this position with grace and dedication.
She was quoted once saying, ""It is important to both embrace and challenge tradition," and she has
done so with grace and determination.
Her willingness to listen, to adapt, and to grow has been a true asset to the company and beyond. Her
passion for the industry has brought her to board positions for both the Professional Door Association of
New England and the International Door Association where she serves on several committees.
Erin's love of dogs has become a staple for the business. "My foster pups often come to work with me",
said Erin. "The team loves our four-legged additions to the family. They interact, walk, play, and love our
fosters as well as help promote and find them homes." It is a friendly, furry reminder to lead with
compassion and discipline to attain your goals!
Michaela, as Vice President of Marketing, left the classroom as a high school teacher and headed to the
family conference room as the Office Manager. Today, she shares her excitement for words and
creativity and people through any open channel which helps to breed a family, fun, and effective culture
both within the company and with our network and partners.
What we share as a family goes well beyond the business and into all parts of our life. Our shared love of
Mother Earth is exemplified by our dedication to green manufacturing with solar panels, eco-friendly
materials, and so much more. Our pride for the past and hope for the future hold us accountable to one

another, our team, and our partners. Our joy for life is present always - despite the trials and tribulations
we all face. Our commitment to safety is seen everywhere in and out of our business. Our dedication to
quality is a guiding light. Our people are the heart and soul of all that we are, and it shows in the
teamwork and dedication shown. All of this becomes a piece in the puzzle of our incredible products.

completely unique door from advanced materials. Enjoy a quick, informal 'tour' of our showroom.

look forward to our family working with your family to create something truly special.

Find a Dealer near you! 

Are you ready to replace your existing garage door? Or are you designing and building your dream garage? Have you been overwhelmed with how to find the right one? We make it easy because what we make is designed for you, your home, and your satisfaction. 

With almost 100 years of manufacturing and engineering excellence, our four-generation family business has been a recognized leader and innovator in the garage door industry. Since our humble beginnings in Hillside, NJ, when we started producing doors for The Overhead Door Company, to our state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities today, Fimbel Architectural Door has earned a reputation for quality and design excellence.

Whether your needs are residential or commercial, carriage style or modern design, historic restoration or new application, we can create the perfect garage door experience for you. We will design and build your door using low-maintenance, energy-efficient materials, manufactured in a sustainable way. 

When we build, we build for beauty and durability that will last because we care about your satisfaction as well as our environment. From our processes to our products, we reduce, reuse, and recycle everything we can. We run on solar, and we love to help reduce your overall maintenance efforts and costs.

Consider the longevity of the door by inquiring about the maintenance required. We believe a low-maintenance lifestyle is the way to go, so we build for ease and confidence. It is also valuable to understand what happens if a section is damaged and needs to be replaced. Many manufacturers without the details we have often cannot replace a single section requiring the purchase of a new door. With few exceptions, we think that is bogus! If you need a replacement section, we will gladly work with you to make it right (note: our hand applied faux stain may not be that easy as it is custom artistry, so we may need another section to match it).

We are so confident in our products that we offer you a robust warranty regardless of geography or design. You can rest well knowing our family has your back for years to come!

Ready to dig in? Here are six easy steps to help you through the journey to your garage door!

For more information behind these steps, please visit our website, but here is the gist to get your gears turning!

Step 1: What's Behind the Door?

How do you want to use your garage? Like 71% of Americans, will the garage door be the primary entrance to the home? Do you live an active lifestyle (snowmobiles, ATVs, golf carts, boats)? Establishing the lifestyle you want to enjoy will help you determine the garage needs. If it will be a living space or man-cave, designing the door with insulation is key. If it is a workspace, lighting will be important. For car lifts and home gyms, hi-lift track might be needed!

Whatever the relationship is with your garage, choosing the right door can make all the difference!

Step 2: Determine Your Budget

Having a budget helps your sales representative guide recommendations. A few things to consider as you approach the project are:

• Expect to pay more for insulated garage doors, double doors, or custom sizes and designs.
• Higher quality materials and manufacturing processes can influence a budget.
• Low-maintenance materials and processes are engineered to bring convenience to your life by requiring less of you, but these higher grade products may influence the budget.
• Stain and paint options are readily available as an upgrade.
• The Insulated Glass Package for an insulated or heated garage may be needed depending on how you want to use the garage space.

Step 3:Pick Your Garage Door Material (FOR RESIDENTIAL APPLICATIONS)

Your material will impact budget, appearance/style options, longevity, durability and annual maintenance.

• Vinyl - BEST: Offers beauty, durability, and design flexibility with the look of painted wood but is weather-resistant, so it will not rot, split, or crack like wood. It is virtually maintenance-free and comes naturally white.
• Wood Composite - BETTER: Has the look and design flexibility of wood or vinyl, but unlike wood it does not require maintenance. Requires initial finishing but can be painted or faux stained regardless of exposure to head and the environment. It will not rot, split, crack, or rust.
• Vinyl-Coated Steel - BETTER: Smooth, natural white finish offers exceptional beauty and options for paint or faux stain finishing. Budget-friendly with many of the benefits of vinyl and steel combined. Weather resistant, durable, dent-resistant, will not rot, split, crack, or rust.
• Wood - GOOD: Beautiful when new but requires ongoing maintenance to remain in good condition and to avoid rotting, splitting, or cracking. Can be painted or stained and provides many design options. Wood doors are the original overhead door.
• Stamped Steel - GOOD: A lower-cost alternative but does not have the curb appeal of other options. Limited in style options. Little to no maintenance required but is prone to corrosion, rust, and denting, leading to a shorter life-cycle. Can be finished.

We choose Versatex as our Vinyl (unfinished doors in the Estate Collection), Vinyl Coated Steel (for our American Legends Series), and Tricoya as our Wood Composite (finished doors in all series) based on the tried and true benefits of each product. These materials offer ease and confidence to our processes and your experience. 

Step 4: Overcome Environmental Considerations

It is clear that Mother Nature is on a rampage, and we aim to keep her out of your garage and home; however, we also want to protect and preserve her. Purchasing a Fimbel Door will bring you that confidence. From our partnership with One Tree Planted to our processes to our products, we reduce, reuse, renourish, and recycle everything we can, but our doors are engineered to withstand what life and the environment throw at them. Choosing the right material and the right construction is key to a door that can endure the unknown of our environmental conditions.

Step 5: Choose Your Design and Options

Every Fimbel door we make is uniquely crafted for you. Our doors come in a range of styles and price points with capabilities for customizations to satisfy your design desires. Using multiple design patents with materials and processes engineered for beauty and durability, we offer you more. Residential or Commercial. Carriage Style to Modern Design. Historic Restoration or New Build. Our doors satisfy the need.

Using your unique design perspective, ambition, and talent, we offer you the opportunity to complete your vision with the quality and capabilities needed to truly round out your final project. Our doors allow you to capture architectural features used in original period designs or contemporary trends. For example, your windows can be nearly any configuration, any design, and nearly any location to tie features through the home to the garage door! You can accommodate any opening by customizing in 1" height and width increments or matching an uneven floor with a scribed bottom. The face of the door is fully customizable whether it's adding logos and routed designs to geometric shapes and windows to waves or anchors - you name it!

 Step 6: Door Finishing Options

As you dream of your door coming to life, don't forget to consider your options. We are very proud of our factory finish and offer it in both standard and custom paint options but also in an array of hand-applied faux stains. The result is the finest finish in the industry and brings a furniture-like finish to exterior architecture. With a strong warranty and compassion for the earth, our paint is an excellent addition to your garage door.

Using heat-reflective high-performance paint, all Factory Finished products will be delivered with a clean finish to last! While most of our products do not require finishing and may remain natural white, adding color to your project can add the wow-factor that you are after! Our vast and ever-expanding color palette includes blacks, charcoals and dark greens as well as faux stains to truly replicate the look of wood without the maintenance. With solutions for replacement of damaged sections to navigating tough exposures to Do-It-Yourself options, our finish will brighten up your home and increase durability. To read more about it, enjoy this blog.

Read more about our finishing options  

Read more about our American Legends Series and our Estate Collection Series to find your perfect door!

In the world of Fimbel, we do not believe in many limitations. We believe that if you can dream it, we can make it. What makes us different is that we build doors that last, reduce impact on the earth, and require very low maintenance and increased durability allowing you peace of mind. We have the best warranty on the market because we stand behind the product we make. We look forward to seeing your creativity and being able to give you a More in a Garage.

Find a Dealer and enjoy! 

Garage doors have come a long way. For decades they simply stood sentinel to welcome vehicles and hide our belongings. Today, 71% of families use the garage as the primary entrance to the home, and the role of the door has changed. Now we see design innovation and manufacturing excellence furnishing garages with absolute beauty and supreme function. At Fimbel ADS we are committed to carrying forth the quality and craftsmanship our great-grandfather built our family business upon while blending in the marvels of today's manufacturing capabilities. You will not find a more beautiful or durable door in the market, and we are sure it will only bring satisfaction to your life.

As summer moves toward fall, and we embrace the chills of autumn, making sure the garage is efficient, secure, and safe should be on the honey-do list. For some garages it may be a simple repair or tweek, but rest assured when you replace your door with a quality, high end door, it will be worth it's weight in gold! "Compared with 22 other common home-improvement projects, an upscale garage door replacement offers one of the biggest bangs for your buck and costs much less than many other home improvement projects" according to the Remodeling Magazine's 2021 Cost vs. Value Report. Coming in at #1 with a 93.8% ROI at resale, the garage clearly deserves some attention! 

Whether you are building (or rebuilding) your dream home, we want to help enhance your curb appeal, ensure sustainability and energy efficiency, and allow for a low-maintenance lifestyle. With a Fimbel door you can count on more!

The most obvious reason to replace your garage door is to improve the curb appeal of the home. The term applies to the aesthetic appeal of a residential or commercial building as perceived from the street, and it was made popular in the 90's with the release of HGTV's show "Curb Appeal". As you may know, the entry door of most homes only constitutes 8% of the home's frontage while the garage door often consumes 30%, we can see the potential for impact with a new door. With the impressive ROI, utilizing the capabilities we offer through our manufacturing as well as additional options such as finishing and hardware, updating the garage door is a slam dunk! To learn more about designing like an architect, please enjoy the attached blog post where we take you through the process!

Make it Matter:

Your choice today in a quality garage door will impact you for years to come. Not only is the style and design of the door critical to the overall appearance of the home, the longevity of the door, the durability of the door, and the reputation of the manufacturer matter. We have been manufacturing doors since 1924, and we know that the right door with basic, annual maintenance will lead to satisfaction and efficiency for the long haul.

Choosing the right material is critical. Our doors are manufactured with materials that will last. Regardless of geographic location, Fimbel doors offer energy efficacy and durability no matter the proximity to water, snow, or high winds. Whether you choose the American Legends or the Estate Collection, all Fimbel doors are designed to last from the construction to the materials we have chosen because your satisfaction is our goal!

Make it Your Own:

First choose your style. While there are many, many design options available in our lineup, there are three basic styles of garage doors in our industry: Traditional, Carriage, and Modern.

Traditional garage doors represent the designs of the second half of the 1900's using raised panel and recessed panel designs. Carriage style garage doors will have an overlay look representative of the doors used on barns for a timeless look. Finally, Modern style garage doors can run the gamut but often have clean lines, smooth surfaces, and interesting windows. 

With Fimbel ADS we can accommodate any of the design styles you desire. Our doors have the sought after look of painted wood without the maintenance. Our Euro, Presidential, and Roaring Twenties series give you the liberty to design to your heart's delight. Our American Legends series comes not only in the classic carriage style but also recessed panel and modern while offering customizations!

Our finishing options give way for your design to take flight with a standard color, custom color, or hand applied faux stain of your choice. Using sustainable paint products and proprietary application processes, our finish will last and bring peace of mind. To find out more about our finishing options, here's another blog post to help paint the full picture for you!

Color isn't the only way to make a Fimbel door your own. We offer you the opportunity to design your door down to the smallest detail. Whether you want to customize the top section to allow for more or less light, or you want to redesign the top section completely to incorporate scrollwork or a custom design, we have the options for you.

Another way to make it your own is to add decorative hardware to the face of the door. To simplify the installation and application of the add-on features, we can customize our rails and designs to accommodate their size and even pre drill the holes to guarantee a polished final look. To complete the package for the hardware, you have the option to powder coat the track system in virtually any color though we like clean white and solid black!

Our organization hangs our hat on safety and quality not only in how we make our product, and we want you to feel the benefits of that. Fimbel doors are manufactured to be safety first. You, your family, your home, and your belongings will rest safely behind our door. Our doors are engineered for durability! We know that poorly fitted doors are not only unsightly but also allow unwanted openings. Since we can match nearly any opening, weather, burglars, and bugs will not have access to your home through the garage door!

Fimbel doors offer you a low-maintenance lifestyle. The clean appearance of the door should last for years to come with a gentle clean with mild soap and water. No harsh abrasives or undue elbow grease necessary. This aspect may be overlooked, but when we consider the supply chain for cleaning products, the effort to implement the cleaning, and the residual waste moving into the earth, we see our processes make way for sustainability. 

Another way that we encourage sustainability is in the benefits you will feel toward energy efficiency! To get a basic idea, the older the door the more likely it is that money is seeping out through it. Our doors are made with insulation that is laminated and completely fill the cavity inside the door to keep air from moving around and through the door. A well-insulated door will reduce energy costs as well as maintain temperatures set in the garage. We want to help you keep cool air in during the summer and cold air out during the winter!

One of the longest lasting aspects of our doors is the contribution made upon purchase. For every door we sell, we work with our partners at One Tree Planted to plant a tree on your behalf. We know the resources generously given my Mother Nature need replenishing, and we want to pay it forward!

To back this beautiful, energy efficient, and low-maintenance lifestyle, we offer you a robust warranty that will satisfy! Regardless of your geographical location, we offer a warranty for our products coast to coast and proudly stand behind our warranty.

Don't compromise aesthetic appeal for practical needs - you can have it all with a Fimbel door. With our designs, you can find the right door to offer you more. If energy efficiency is what you are after, we have you covered. If your geographic location is limiting your choices, we have you covered. If you are driven by value and longevity, we have you covered. Or if you simply want to make your neighbors jealous, we've got that, too! We are here to provide the door to support your lifestyle and desires – no matter your opening or aspiration, we have you covered!

Find a dealer near you by using our dealer locator!